DIVING AMERICA'S FIRST UNDERSEA PARK
KEY LARGO, Florida Keys — Divers, snorkelers and Keys visitors can thank the late “Miami Herald” editor John Pennekamp for helping to create the first undersea park in the United States. John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, located in Key Largo just a 90-minute drive from Miami, was dedicated a park on Dec. 10, 1960, and is to mark its 50th anniversary in 2010.
More than a million visitors annually observe abundant underwater wildlife inside the 70 nautical miles of the park, all geared toward protecting the miracle of America’s only living coral reef.
Pennekamp is incorporated in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, nearly 2,800 square miles of coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamp on both sides of the Keys island chain throughout waters of Florida Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Within Pennekamp Park, spearfishing and coral collection are prohibited.
Divers in park waters can discover countless species of fish and varieties of coral that provide shelter for crabs, sea urchins, snails, lobsters, shrimp, moray eels, worms, chitons (mollusks), starfish, sea cucumbers, sand dollars, barnacles and sponges.
Some of the more popular dive sites in and around the park include the massive brain coral heads and pillar corals of tongue-and-spur Molasses Reef, the resident southern sting rays, moray eels and silvery permit at shallow French Reef and two other famous Key Largo reefs, the Horseshoe and the Elbow.
Among the park’s dive highlights is the nine-foot bronze statue of Jesus Christ that rests gracefully in 20 feet of water at the Key Largo Dry Rocks site. The statue is a replica of the “Christ of the Abyss” statue in the Mediterranean Sea, donated to the Underwater Society of America in 1961 by industrialist Egidi Cressi. Surrounding the “Christ of the Deep” statue are large brain, staghorn and elkhorn coral formations and a photographer-friendly four-foot barracuda.
Pennekamp’s Reef Adventures, a 35-passenger boat, departs at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on weekends for two-tank dive trips to two area sites. Weekday trips are at 1:30 p.m. Tank and weight rentals can be arranged. Complete scuba diving instruction also is available.
For private or dive club rates and reservations, call 305-451-6322 or click here.
Divers also can contact any of several independently owned dive shops in the Key Largo area that offer similar diving trips.
Plans are under way for a celebration at Pennekamp in December 2010 as the underwater preserve prepares to turn 50, making it an ideal time to include the park on a travel itinerary. Details of the celebration are to be released in early 2010.
One of the most recognized symbols of Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park has been the underwater statue of Christ of the Abyss. Photos courtesy of <a href="http://www.stephenfrink.com/">Stephen Frink</a>
Fish in the Florida Keys are here in prodigious numbers and diversity.
Blue-striped grunts are the icon of the Florida Keys, typically seen schooling in large numbers around the protection of stands of elkhorn coral.
Even fish that are normally solitary, like filefish, are seen schooling together on the reefs of the Florida Keys.
At one of the world's most frequently dived sites, Molasses Reef, world-famous underwater photographer Stephen Frink encountered a species of octopus (tremoctopus violaceus, blanket octopus) that had never been photographed in the wild.